Post Office to Chop Nearly 600 Jobs from Backend Staff

Around 600 workers for the Post Office are about to lose their jobs says the Communication Workers Union, in a move it warns could see the UK's magical letters and things-off-the-internet delivering service go the way of the steel industry.

The CWU says the latest batch of PO job losses is to come from within the Supply Chain part of the business, which handles the distribution of cash throughout the entire Post Office network. This is in addition to a previously announced decision by bosses to cut around 500 members of staff in a streamlining of 39 of the Crown Post Offices it manages itself.

The union's general secretary Dave Ward has called for the Post Office management to resign in protest, saying that government cuts have left them in a straitjacket.

Ward continued: "The Post Office was split from Royal Mail in 2012 in the run-up to privatisation and we are yet to see a plan that will secure its future. With a cut in its funding from £210m in 2013, to zero in 2019, these job losses show that under Sajid Javid’s leadership the Post Office is heading the same way as the steel industry." [CWU via Sky]